Scrumptious Sarajevo

When I wasn’t busy exploring Herzegovina or the sites of Sarajevo, I was occupied eating.

For the most part, I absolutely loved the food (and drinks) in Sarajevo. The Turkish influence was definitely there with a twist, of course. I’ll spare you the details of the few underwhelming meals I had. Let’s focus on the delicious highlights:

I sampled a couple varieties of Baklava from two different places — Baklava & Smit – FISTIKZADE and Baklava Ducan. I enjoyed the vast variety at Baklava & Smit and was especially delighted by the chocolate variety. I found the “plain” version of baklava at Baklava Ducan to be superior to the similar kind from the other shop. But, both places were incredible and I will be dreaming of baklava for days to come.

I devoured a traditional Bosnian lunch of sausage in a warm, doughy pita (Ćevapi). As one of the tour guides warned, the food in Bosnia consists of meat, meat, and bread. And it’s very good meat and bread!

My favourite meal was at Dzenita where I had a traditional Bosnian dish, Sogan dolma. The comforting bowl was filled with small onions stuffed with ground beef, mashed potatoes, a savoury broth, and a dollop of sour cream. It was, as you may have guessed, accompanied with a few pieces of pita. To round out my meal of carbs, I had a Sarajevo beer.

While on the day trip to Herzegovina, our tour group had a fantastic lunch. Our guides strongly recommended having trout as it was caught from the river we could literally see from our table. I know when to follow recs and ordered the trout stuffed with dried plums while others at the table ordered variations on the same dish. We were all quite satisfied with our meals.

As someone who was dragged to countless farmers markets as a child, I now have a need to seek out markets in new cities. The one I found in Sarajevo, Pijaca Markale, did not disappoint. I was only going to be in town one more night and was planning on eating out so I couldn’t justify much but I did get the largest container of figs I could find.

For one dinner, I found Cakum Pakum which was highly rated online. It is a very cute, small restaurant serving a mix of Italian and Bosnian food. I ordered the Cakum Pakum, for obvious reasons, and was not disappointed! It was a savoury crepe (or pancake) filled with chicken, zucchini, and onions with a delicious turmeric sauce. Warning: people smoke everywhere in Sarajevo, including inside restaurants.

The last item I felt I needed to sample was Bosnian coffee. I overheard someone asking how it was different from Turkish coffee. The waiter replied, “Well, you’re in Bosnia. So it’s Bosnian coffee.” The last time I had Turkish coffee was about 17 years ago so it’s not fresh in my memory but it did seem pretty similar to the Bosnian coffee I sipped at the very cute Caffe Bar “Andar”.

I did have a very hard time finding breakfast, especially something that wasn’t a pastry before heading out on the earlier tours. I lucked out the final morning at Simidce and had a simple yet scrumptious omelette at a very reasonable price.

There were a couple of meals that were disappointing but overall, I ate very well in Sarajevo. I appreciated that one of the guides mentioned that locals like to eat at the restaurants in Old Town so they are all pretty good and not over-priced. That took the pressure off of finding the perfect place. While I do feel like I saw the main sites of Sarajevo in my 2.5 days there, I wish I had more time to sample more of the cuisine.